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4/24/09

Chandelier tutorial

I was wanting/needing two small chandeliers to hang from my two gazebos in my backyard for a upcoming party...so whats a girl to do but make them herself~ I was extremely lucky to pick up this large chandelier at a tag sale for $5 bucks (seen in the before photo) The after photo shows just one of the two chandeliers I've made....not to bad if I do say so myself! Anywho.... here is how I did it if anyone is wanting to make their own chandelier.

Firstly, your needing crystals from a thrifted chandelier... or you could use those long strings of beaded garlands that are so popular around Christmas time. I could imagine this made with white pearls...hmmm, now I'm wanting one of those! I pulled off all of the crystals from this chandelier.....then I took the brass frame outside and started pounding apart the rings with the predrilled holes in them that I wanted to reuse on my two new chandeliers. Here are those parts shown below. I cut open the old metal circles so that I could make them smaller. I simply wrapped wire to secure the ends together to keep the new/smaller circle shapes.I also used 3 metal rings to use as the part of the structure to hang the crystals from. I used a total of 5 circles, 3 store bought and 2 made from reused parts from the old chandelier. (If your not reusing parts from a thrifted chandelier your going to purchase more of the metal rings to create your chandelier) I picked these metal rings up at Joanns fabrics. I imagine all craft stores would sell these. The large one which is 10" was only about $2 bucks, the 5" was about $1.50 and the 3" was .50cents. Your also needing some wire. I just pulled from my wire stash-- the nice silver wire pictured below is 26 gauge and the large messy bundle of wire I have no idea what gauge it is.... but it is slightly thicker than the 26 gauge. Now...lets start having some fun shall we?I've never made anything like this before, I'm just winging it, keep that in mind lol~ I used a wooden skewer and wrapped the thicker of the two wires around that... I pushed the wire close together on the skewer so that the loops would be the same size in diameter once I pulled it off.Next, I pulled off the wire from the skewer and started to flatten the wire so that it would be one long wavy piece of wire. I then attached the wire with tape to the round metal circle temporarily while working to attach it permanetly with wire. I used the 26 gauge wire to attach the thicker wire to the ring by going around the entire thing catching the wire next to the metal ring and just pulling it tight. Easy-peasy. When I had went around the ring back to where I started, I just wrapped the wire several times around to secure it. I did this to all 3 rings. Next, I painted the 3 rings with some gold metallic paint. I like the Krylon brand, it dries in 15 minutes or less~Here is the bottom of the chandelier I made (it is shown upside down so you can see the different heights I've created) To attach each circle to the larger circle I used wire that I simply wrapped around each ring trying my best to keep the circles centered each time I did this. The very bottom circle of my chandelier I was wanting to hang down a little bit more than the rest...so I just lengthened the wire and attached it about 2 inches lower than the rest (below, it is pictured upside down)Here is what is going to be the top of my chandelier. You can see the 4 pieces of wire that attaches the smaller inside circle to the larger outside circle... then I spray painted it all with the Krylon gold paint. I then divided the crystals from my thrifted chandelier into two piles. I had to stop and wash the crystals as they were pretty filthy! Once dried I had a fun time adding them to the rings to create my two new chandeliers. You can see in this photo below the top and bottom of the new chandelier starting to take form. I attached the top circle to the bottom circle only with the strands of crystals. This is being created so it will be able to collapse somewhat flat as these are only going to be used once a year for my yearly pirate party and then stored for the rest of the year! (the green wire is only being used temporarily while the chandelier is being created) I kept adding crystals spacing them somewhat evenly as the wire loops would allow me to lol.... then I added some crystals into the reused predrilled metal pieces that I bent into smaller circles. Thats it....easy-peasy! Here is a close up photo showing the chandelier all finished.

Here is another view...

I am going to add this light fixture (below) that is normally used in paper lanterns for the light source for my two new chandeliers. Thats it...I hope you try it. Remember, you could use those beaded garlands as well!

That's elegant for a DIY chandelier. Great job! We also did something like this in our house in Twin Cities last holiday. I'm not into electrical stuff in our house so we asked some help from a true electrician to fix up the wiring a little bit.

I am a mixed media artist. I love to sew, embroider, crochet and create things using vintage objects. I love: old classic cars, vintage fabrics, old buttons, cats, shabby chic furniture & linens.... chewing gum, diet pepsi, sneakers, chocolate and gardening~ I like to rummage through thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales and the occasional curbside trash pile. I don't mind getting dirty for treasures! I like to repurpose found objects throughout my home and garden.